An Uncle's Sin
by Michelle Winchester
Summary: Stan Pines always knew his niece Joey wasn't his nephews child at least biologically. Please note this story is cross posted on AO3 and Deviant art title changed from original.
1. Stan I

Stanford "Stanley' Pines had know for years that Johanna wasn't his nephews child at least biologically. He remembers his brother Ford who disappeared through a portal of his own making, he should never have stepped foot in Gravity Falls maybe Ford would still be in the right dimension now who knows. A couple of months after Ford disappears he tells his family (he finds out Sherman's Son Joseph got married last spring) his father is furious and blames him (that's okay cause he blames himself too) and his mother's distraught. Stanley Pines dies four months later around the same time "Stanford" Pines opens the Mystery Shack for the first time.

It's fourteen years later when he hears from his family again and it's his brother Shermy. He wants his help talking their mother out of an idea, once he finds out what it is, he agrees. Ford had apparently (he shudders to think about it cause ew it's his brother) put some of his (okay he's just gonna call it DNA cause again ew) DNA away before he got himself clipped in case he wanted kids later in his life and his mother had somehow acquired it. His mother is a great liar he will admit, he just has no idea how she pulled it off, Stan persists for weeks trying to get her to throw it away but in the end , Joseph and his wife want kids and were told it would be unlikely Joseph would father them in a moment of weakness ( and his father daring him to argue) he caves.

In September 1996 Marie Pines nee Walker announces she's expecting his mother is ecstatic.

Stan doesn't know what to think. Of course he's excited to become an uncle again even if it's at 55 but it feels wrong Ford should be here it should be his wife having this baby not his nephews and when he's really depressed he wishes he was never born. It's a surreal thing Fords kid coming into the world 15 years after he disappeared, he wonders what his brother would have thought about it, and he doubles his efforts on the portal.

In March of 1997 Stan laughs at the situation...it's twins of all of the ironic situations, and according to the ultrasound they're boys...or from the version he gets from his mother instead of Joseph (who wants two running backs) they only know that one is a boy for sure the other is shy but everyone is sure it's another boy, Joseph tells him they're going to put his brother down as the father on the twins birth certificate to honor his brother and he advises against it.

The Mystery Shack is taking off he's finally got something he's good at ripping people off and people know he's doing it; he loves his job by day but at night he tries harder and harder gaining only milometers in his research of the portal and every night becomes even more of a disappointment, he gets frustrated and takes it out on almost anybody who asks what's wrong. He begins the search for the other two journals.

Filbrick and Stan don't talk much but as hard assed as he is, he knows that just because he disowned Stan doesn't mean everyone did so when his mother invites him to New Jersey in at the end of may Stan goes but stays at a hotel as far away from his father as he can get, whenever they talk to each other they butt heads so they tend to ignore each other when in the same room.

'Marie looks ready to pop' is the first thing he thinks when he see's his Niece in law for the first time in 8 and 1/2 months. The boys have grown quite big and she has been forbidden from doing just about anything. That why he's here to Help Shermy and Joseph with the twins nursery, he helps build cribs and a changing table and he paints the room green and watches as Marie fills the closet with clothes for her boys and his mother donates things from his and Fords Nursery. He senses a disaster coming.

On June 20th at 12: 55 pm Stanford James Jr. and Joanna Beth Pines come screaming into the world only a few minutes apart. They're red skinned and blotchy,their eyes can't focus on anything but his mother looks like the little boy is his brother reborn. Stanford has brown hair ten fingers,ten toes and is a quiet little one his eyes are the blue all newborns are but he can tell already they're his mother's green eyes in fact it seems like he inherited a lot of his mothers traits but Stan thinks it might change.

His parents seem quite content to keep cooing over little Ford, Marie is dosing and Joseph went to go buy some clothes for his little girl jokingly saying he'll have to play tea party now, as he walks over to the bassinet he sees the little girl for the first time and falls in love. Little Johanna is born with 12 fingers a trait she inherited from her father and 10 toes like her brother she has Brown hair but it has more auburn in it like Fords did scooping her up he smiles when little Joey as he dubbed her coo's happily. Stan knows his brother would have loved this girl, he would have loved them both but Stan knows for sure that Joey would have had her Daddy wrapped around her tiny finger and in return she would have been Daddy's little girl.

-Don't mind me I'm a line break-

He waits til the twins are home before heading back to Oregon in his wallet are pictures of the twins first days as he has promises from Marie and Joseph to send him pictures and videos as they grow, he won't be able to visit a lot but at least Uncle Stan won't be a complete stranger to them he puts the pictures in a frame on his desk and Smiles more freely than he has in a while.

The twins are a month old when he gets the call Stanford didn't make it through his first month of life SIDS they said, baby Ford went to sleep and just didn't wake up in the morning, He closes the shack and heads up to New Jersey for the funeral. Filbrick and Stan talk civilly for the first time fifteen years, the loss affects Marie and his mother the most & father and son talk about how to help Marion but come up with very few ideas.

Johanna won't stop crying she knows somethings wrong and she wants her twin, Stan offers to take her out of the room and calm her to give the grieving mother some space and distraught Marie takes him up on the offer and hands him the baby bag. 'It's surprisingly simple to calm a baby down' Shermy had told him once when he was fifteen and holding Joseph for the first time he had said if you project calm and security in your body language the baby picks up on it.

So that's what he does and Joey calms down considerably whimpering every now and then but she's calm now and that's the good thing. He takes advantage of her silence to check her diaper and all the necessitates, but all she seems to want is a cuddle.

He can sympathize with Joey he knows what it's like to lose a twin, even at her age she knows he's gone and up until now they've shared everything together, never been separated and to have that suddenly ripped away, he remembers Fords rejection of him and knows how heartbreaking it is.

It's his mother Marion who comes out a little later and finds him making silly faces at the baby girl who only giggles and coos at him and tells him it's time for the burial and Marie was wondering if he could hold on to Joey til after, he agrees without question no parent should have to bury their child. He knows Marie only needs him to have her so she doesn't drop the baby if she collapses.

Marie does end up collapsing in tears it's her Baby boy who will never crawl, or have his first day of school, or even reach his first birthday. Joseph and Marie pines grieved for their son during the funeral they often said how well he was doing and the hopes they had for him.

Stanford J.R

June 20 1997 -July 20 1997

Gone too soon


	2. Stan II

Marie decides it all has to go, and Joseph agrees. Fords clothes and crib are moved into storage and the walls are repainted a soft pink as it's turned into a baby girls nursery, he moves into the guest room and the next thing he knew he had become a live in nanny as Joseph goes back to work and Marie seems to sink into herself looking at pictures of Ford from over his one month of life.

At first he doesn't mind he loves taking care of Joey,but he only stays a month before heading back to the shack, as much as he enjoys the smiles and giggles of Stanford's only living child he knows that Joseph and Marie need to get back to taking care of their daughter and living again. And hell he knows a month isn't a long time but he has bills to pay too and so begrudgingly he leaves the small family behind.

His search for the other Journals is turning up empty and before he knows it months go by and then a year.

Joey is 3 years old when Marie announces she's six months pregnant again; by some miracle Marie and Joseph manage to conceive on their own and another twist of fate in the Pines Family it's another set of fraternal twins. Everyone is excited by the prospect of a new baby even Stan as distant as he's been lately, the family seems to buzz with life again but a few days before Johanna's second birthday Sherman and Filbrick are killed in a car accident with a drunk driver and once again Stan closes up shop and goes to New Jersey.

During the funeral Stan feels numb his family seems to be dropping like flies. First his twin brother, Then his brothers son, his older brother and Finally his father. It had taken them years but Filbrick and Stan Pines had forgiven each other, lord knows they were never on fantastic terms with each other but at they were civil ... for the most part.

He sees Johanna again for the first time at the wake. She's now knee high, her brown hair is tied in pigtails and marie has put the little girl in a dress. she's currently at the snack table trying to get one of he little hands on the cookies. "whatcha doing kiddo?" he asks as he crouched down to the toddler's level "okkie grumpy tan" she said reaching for the tray.

In his mind's eye he can see his brother picking her up and telling her no sweets til dessert. But he is the self proclaimed cool uncle so he grabs a few cookies and gives some to the toddler for the rest of the night he seems to have a little buddy he's either carrying her or she's following him probably in the hopes of getting another cookie but the thought that she likes him even to some degree warms him so he lets it happen.

He decides to stay a few weeks and help his mother pack away his father's things and he helps Joseph do the same with his brother Shermy's things , it's very surreal for him his father seemed like such and immovable figure and now it looks like he just disappeared.

On August 31st 1999, weighing a grand total of five pounds each Mabel Carrie and Christopher Dipper , come screaming into the world.

He doesn't know how he got roped into this but somehow he ends up babysitting Joey when Marie is admitted into the hospital and his mother rushes to meet her great grandchildren. Marie and Joseph are good parents he knows but between Filbrick and Shermy's Funerals, the wake and a new set of twins they've had very little time to get baby number one used to any of the equipment for babies 2 and 3. Oh she knows there's a baby coming she just doesn't know what all the cool stuff is, so between himself and his mother they try to get it out of her system.

He likes to think they succeeded, when the twins come home Joey is ready to go with the rattles and she knows to be gentle with the little rocker and if he has a picture of her looking adorably clueless as little Dipper bawls his eyes out he'll just say its future black mail material.


	3. Stan III

When Joseph decides to move to Piedmont, California, his mother follows. It's not surprising his mom wanted to be close to all her grandchildren but rejection hurts no matter where or how it comes. So he pretends to be happy telling Joseph he'll come and visit if he can take the kids to the beach and tan.

They visit him this time on their way down to California they don't want to fly with a toddler and two infants they make enough fuss in the car Joseph tells him. They stay in a Motel close to the shack and seem relatively unimpressed with Gravity Falls though like Ford before her Joey loves the place she's very curious and at three years is going through her "what's that?" and "mine!" phases. For example, when they first arrived she stole his Fez and she refused to give it back. Though when she brought in a few bucks when she came on tours with him, the people thought it was cute he brought his 'granddaughter" to work with him.

They only stay a couple of days; they have to beat the moving truck to California, and after a quick goodbye they bundle the kids into the car and leave he doesn't cry. He doesn't.

Time flies by again and before he knows it nine years has passed. Nine! He doesn't know how so much time passed before he noticed, he's gotten nowhere with the locations of the journals and goes back to tinkering with the portal that frustrates him to no fucking end, he doesn't know how many times he just ends up swearing at the goddamn thing half the fucking night. These days he seems to be getting a constant stream of pictures and videos of the twins and Joey from California. Most of the Twins like his brother Joey is very camera shy and is quite happy to be the one behind the camera.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he's realized he's almost 70 years old, he still fit and active right now, but he knows that it won't last, granted his mother's in her nineties, and she's still active, but he wonders if he'll bring Ford home in her lifetime mostly because he wants to see Ford mad at someone other than him for a change. He wonders how Ford will react when he finds out about Johanna and Stanford, will he be upset? Will he happy and Upset that he missed so much? He doesn't know, but he can't wait to find out.

Joey is almost a teenager, and that realization terrifies him, six fingers or not Johann is going to be a pretty girl, Ford would have had to buy a shotgun to keep the boys at bay but for now, while she stays with his mother she will have to beat them off with a stick. There's been a change in plans.

His mother won't take Joey this year she told Joseph, Marie and Johanna it was old age, and he knew it was part of the answer and after talking to his mother he finds out the rest of the answer. Part of it is his mother as she gets older and older had come to the 'realization' that she played God when it came to Joey and Stanford's births and had spontaneously decided that Johanna shouldn't have been born, and on top of it all the child has dared to act too much like her long gone son for her to be comfortable with.

He knows Joey is smart (too smart)his mind supplies, so when the bus pulls into Gravity Falls he knows she understands to some extent of why grandma doesn't want her doesn't ask who Ford is, and that makes it easier to keep it a secret it's also that summer he finds out she doesn't know about her brother Ford either,

The way she fins out is easy enough he still keeps their newborn pictures on his desk alongside Dipper and Mabel's, when she asks he's furious, Joey is twelve long past the time she should have found out about her dead twin, he doesn't want to be the one who tells her but he might be the only one who will. He sits her down in the kitchen and tells her a half truth (she can't know about her father yet) he tells her Ford just stopped breathing one day when they were babies and waits to see if she has the Pines temper. She doesn't. While there is a lot Ford in there, there's also an equal amount of Marie in there, and she's over it in a little more than 3 hours and asks to see more pictures of her brother. She doesn't like the Northwest boy he thinks when she asks why he gets a list, but he understands that she thinks he's rude and a bully. He constantly calls her sixie which pisses the twelve-year-old off, so when he decides to call Manly Dans daughter a giant freak she throws the punch before Wendy can. It's the first time he realizes there's a bit of him in there too. Northwest runs off crying and Joey has a bruised knuckle but he is absurdly proud of her, he takes her out for ice cream and teaches her to throw a real punch, by the end if it the kid has one hell of a punch. They both agree not to tell her Parents. In the end he's sad to see her go and he only, realizes that as the bus drives back to California and fades from sight. It's been a fun 8 weeks with the kid and it's been nice to have someone besides Soos around. 


	4. Ford I

Ford doesn't know how long he's been here, a year, two, six? Or has it only been a month. He knows he's not getting out of here so why should he bother keeping track of the passage of time. A part of him hopes that Stan is trying to find a way to save him, but he knows it's moot. Stan couldn't fix anything to save his life or, in this case, Fords life. And besides, if Stan has any fucking sense he'll have read his journal by now and know not to open the portal again.

At first, he doesn't want to leave his 'crash' site mostly its hope that Stan will open the portal again, he doesn't and both relief and sadness hit him. So he began to wasn't long after that he had discovered Bill was after him; everywhere he went Ford could swear he heard his creepy laugh, voice and don't get him started on the dreams. Bill was toying with him he knew it was him, at first, the image of two infants one male, one female, then it showed Bill stealing the boy with one of his 'puppets' and replacing him with a dead one and when he saw the family grieving he realized it was HIS family. Bill as messing with his family because of him.

His Nephew for that was a the little boy could have been was now going to be made into one of that monsters puppets and there was nothing he could do for the poor boy. Never before had he felt so days and night became a blur as time began to pass at what seemed to be a never-ending circle of running from Bill and fighting his lackeys. To tell you the truth he's kinda surprised he's still alive after all, this time.

Time moved slower here. It was the next thing he noticed for every one day here he was figuring maybe four days went by back home. It would explain the exhaustion he was feeling but he adjusted, here it was adapt or die and dying wasn't an option...not yet at least.

He hated it here one could only take so much of running for their lives and he was drawing close to that mark, but with every attack, he seemed to get stronger, faster, even smarter. He even learned to make weapons of his own. Neat huh!

But Bill still plagued his dreams, most often he would see the little girl from dreams before but only now she was growing. One week she would be five and the next eleven, hell even he could tell she was suffering without her twin. The jealous looks she gave her younger brother and sister, he couldn't see their faces but he knew vaguely who they were or were they just from the local school and she saw them every day? He couldn't tell anymore. It wasn't often he saw the boy he looked a lot like him and Stan to tell you the truth. Same build, same hair color but instead of chocolate brown eyes like his sister he had green eyes, he assumed like his mother for no one in his family had green eyes. It made Ford wonder if Stan was their father if he were he was glad Stan had found someone to love him, when he last saw Stan wasn't in the best place, Ford shook his head he didn't want to think of that day.

So he wandered on.


	5. Johanna I

Johanna doesn't want to go to Gravity Falls. Mostly because she thinks the names stupid and she barely even knows her Grunkle Stan why would she want to go spend eight weeks with him? "All the more reason you should go" her father had said. But she didn't want to, why couldn't she stay with Nana oh right. Nana didn't mean to look after three kids this summer or did it have something to do with that Ford guy she as crying about? Johanna looks at the facts her Grunkle Stans full name is Stanford but why would she cry about someone who was alive? It just didn't make any sense Joey thought as she packed her bag for the summer, the end of the school year was only a week away and then she was off.

Johanna wasn't stupid according to her teachers she's far from it so nine years old or not she knows something isn't right. Earlier in the year she was at her great grandmother's house and found her crying over an old photo album when she tried to give her Nana a hug she gets yelled at, needless to say, that's why she's on her way to Uncle Stans this summer.

She quickly discovered she liked staying with 'Grunkle' Stan. Well, at least, when he's not getting her to work in the shop, Okay all he's doing is making her stock shelves but to a nine-year-old its torture. Also, as it turns out, he's the only one who gave her a straight answer when asked directly. A con man uncle Stan may be but he's honest when it counts even brutally so, it's how she learns she had another brother , a big brother granted he was only about thirty minutes or so older but still! She had a twin and nobody ever told her!

she disappears for a while after that but returns an hour later.

When she punches, Nathaniel Northwest in the nose, Wendy gives her a high five but says next time she can handle it. Stan had taken her to the park that day so she can hang out with some other kids and he could swindle some cash from some of the parents. So when Stan heard the girly scream he imeaditly looks up thinking she got hurt but when he sees the Northwest boy running away and Joey herself sporting a bruised and bloody knuckle, Stan grabbed his niece by the arm and leads her away.

At first, she thought she was in trouble, but when they got to the car, he starts laughing and tells her he's proud of her for 'putting the little punk in his place' and ends up taking her out for not cheap ice cream. In the end, Joey ends up getting punching lessons from her former boxer Uncle and she actually punches Nathaniel two more times over the summer. Stan wipes a fake tear from his eye and tells her he's neve been prouder of her. It's an unspoken agreement that they never tell her parents. Ever. '

Its when she goes home things begin to go bad for Joey. Dipper and Mabel start getting bullied at school, Dipper for his unusual birthmark and Mabel for her outgoing personality. In the end, she punches a lot more boys and girls over the course of the year and by the end of the school year, she's been suspended. Her parents are not amused by her excuse of "I did it for the Twins." the fight that got her suspended leaves her with a bloody lip and black eye but at the very least she knows that Dipper and Mabel are proud and that's all that matters.


	6. Johanna II

When she was fourteen, she heads back to Gravity Falls. Her Grunkle Stan is glad to have her back the mystery hack pardon me shack had picked up more tourists lately, so more employees were needed, and preferably Stan didn't want to have to pay them. Just like that Joey learns to become a jack of all trades, she goes from stocking shelves to running the cash, to learning how to scam people and at one point she's even an attraction. It's at the mystery shack that she's called a freak in Gravity Falls for the first time, granted being called a freak isn't exactly new for Joey, in fact, Sheila McCorkle does it on a regular basis along with a few other kids at school. But this is the first time in Gravity Falls; the small town had been her haven since third grade when people started to notice her little oddity, but it seems like all good things come to an end.

It started off as a regular day Joey was stocking shelves when a group of tourists came in Grunkle Stan had given them the tour, and they were now wandering around the gift shop. Soon a teenage boy walked by and noticed her hand taking in her six-fingered glory, grabbing her hand he shouts "Hey look a real freak!" and for a moment, Joey's mind goes blank as the boy starts to take pictures of her hand and he's joined by his friends. The crowd grows, and Joey begins to get overwhelmed the next thing she knows Stan is yelling at them, it's one thing to take her picture when she's in costume but another when she's stocking shelves. She runs to the attic while he has them distracted.

She has been in her attic room for four hours; Soos tried to get her to come down about two hours, but that was the only attempt made so far, and Grunkle Stan has a shop to run so she doesn't expect anything from him until he closes the shack. She spends a lot of time staring at her hands or more specifically her extra fingers, and she decides with all the certainty of a teenager that they have to go.

The Mystery Shack is open for another hour when Johanna sneaks down to the kitchen, keeping half an eye out for Soos as she heads to the knife drawer and pulls one out. Then Joey places the first finger on the edge of the counter; it takes her a while to gather the courage to bring the knife to her finger, and she's barely made the first cut when her wrist is grabbed, and the knife is ripped out of her hand. Joey looks up and sees the enraged face of her Uncle Stan, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" Stan shouted throwing the knife in the sink.

"I DIDN'T WANT TO BE A FREAK ANYMORE" Joey shouts back "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED YOURSELF KID! HOW STUPID ARE YOU!" Stan shouts shaking the fourteen-year-old by her shoulders. Tears begin to fall down the teenagers face; she stumbles to the ground as Stan lets her go, Stans' face softens as he sees his niece sobbing on the floor. Stan has never been good with emotions, but he looks at Joey and forces himself to calm down, slowly Stan kneels down on the floor beside her. "This isn't the first time this has happened to you is it? Stan asked Joey shook her head; Stan pulled Joey against him and reached for her hands. "These don't make you a freak" Stan started "they make you special I mean who wants to be normal eh?" he finished awkwardly rubbing her back. They sat in silence for a while before Stan pulled Joey in for a hug "you're not a freak." he told his crying niece. They stayed like that for two hours.  



End file.
